


Ever After

by triste



Category: Shion no Ou
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-21
Updated: 2012-11-21
Packaged: 2017-11-19 05:01:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,374
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/569389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/triste/pseuds/triste
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ayumi gets his happy ending.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ever After

Title: Ever After  
Author: Triste  
Fandom: Shion no Ou  
Pairing: Shion/Ayumi  
Rating: PG-13  
Status: Complete  
Disclaimer: Not mine

~~

It only takes one mistake, one slip-up in Ayumi's carefully calculated plans, for him to get caught. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time is more than enough for the wrong person to discover his secret.

Predictably, his story ends up all over the newspapers. While shougi might not be of interest to the general public, a scandal almost certainly is, and it probably doesn't get much better than a teenage boy masquerading as a girl in order to enter the female league for easy wins. Playing for money rather than a love of the game is dishonourable enough in itself, but to deceive his fellow competitors is even more of a disgrace.

Ayumi doesn't expect to ever set foot in the Shougi Association again when he attends his meeting with the head of the committee, nor does he expect sympathy or understanding as he explains his reasons for deceiving everyone. He talks about his mother and her illness, and he talks about the hospital bills he's been struggling to pay for as long as he can remember. He apologises for the trouble and the offence he's caused, and although he truly is sorry for what he's done, he doesn't regret it.

He's already resigned himself to the worst possible outcome, so he doesn't argue when he finds himself disqualified from the women's league. They strip him of his ranking and his status, but thankfully they don't demand repayment of his earnings.

Ordinarily, they say, he wouldn't be allowed to play professional shougi again, but there are people who have spoken out in his defence. Yasuoka's opinion wouldn't usually matter much to the committee, but her father, the 8-dan, and the Meijin's do. It would be a shame, their typewritten statements say, to lose talent like his, and Ayumi is amazed by the committee's final decision.

His punishment turns out to be a three-month suspension. After that, he's allowed to return, but he has to start out all over again from the very bottom, this time in the men's league. It won't be easy for him to progress, nor will it be easy for him to gain acknowledgement or acceptance, and Ayumi is faced with two choices. He can abandon shougi altogether and devote himself to full time work or he can start doing what he's always wanted to by playing because he wants to, not because it's something he considers to be a path to easy cash.

He needs time, he eventually admits, before he can give them a response, and excuses himself from the room to find Yasuoka waiting patiently outside.

'Are you okay?' she writes, her eyes full of concern for him, and Ayumi feels like the lowest man on earth for making her worry like this.

"I'm fine," he says, but he's lying and she knows it.

They sit side by side in silence for a while, but the minutes tick by and Ayumi is no closer to finding his answer. He sighs wearily and then starts when Yasuoka's hand settles on top of his with a squeeze. She smiles warmly, lending him her strength, and it's yet another thing Ayumi is indebted to her for.

"I want to be selfish," he says softly. "I want to keep playing, but my mom... If I don't get more money soon, she'll die."

He trails off and digs the knuckles of his free hand into his eyes, trying as hard as he can to stop the despair from setting in and overwhelming him, and Yasuoka gives his fingers another squeeze before releasing them and reaching out for her notepad. The tip of her felt-tipped pen squeaks over the paper as she writes down a reply and holds it up so he can read it.

'I spoke with my father last night. He's willing to lend you the money for the operation. Won't you accept his offer?'

"No," Ayumi says immediately. "I won't borrow money from anyone. This is my problem. I'll deal with it somehow."

'You could still work part time,' she writes. 'Father told me you could take as long as you need to pay it back.'

"I couldn't," he says. "That wouldn't be fair of me."

Yasuoka shakes her head earnestly. 'If you won't borrow it from him, borrow it from me. I want your mother to have the operation and get healthy again. I want you to keep playing shougi, too.'

"Thank you," Ayumi says sincerely. "I really do appreciate it, but no."

She stands abruptly, her eyebrows drawn downward into a frown, and her lips pressed tight into a thin white line. He tries to say how sorry he is, but she leaves without even giving him a backward glance. He doesn't hear from her again until forty minutes later, when his cell phone buzzes in his shirt pocket, and he flips it open to see that she's sent him a message.

'Come to my house,' it says. 'There's something I have to give you.'

Bewildered, Ayumi makes his way to the Yasuoka residence. Yasuoka's mother shows him inside and takes him to where Yasuoka and her father are waiting in the kitchen. Ayumi takes a seat, folding his hands in his lap nervously as Yasuoka passes him a book. It looks just like the one that she registers her allowance in.

"What's this?" he asks hesitantly.

'It belongs to you,' writes Yasuoka. 'It's to record your loan repayments.'

"You can't be serious," says Ayumi in alarm, but Yasuoka's father raises a palm to stop him from continuing.

"We've already called the hospital," he says. "I didn't want to do anything without your permission, but Shion was very insistent."

'It's going to be okay,' Yasuoka writes, smiling. 'Your mother can have the operation now.'

"Don't!" Ayumi says urgently, but Yasuoka's smile just widens.

'It's too late. We've already made the arrangements.'

Ayumi clenches his fists, powerless and frustrated, and Yasuoka's father speaks.

"I understand that it's a costly procedure," he says. "I also understand that you've been struggling alone for a long time. It doesn't justify lying your way into the women's league as you did, but it's clear that you had your reasons. You're going to have to work hard if you want to regain the trust of those who let you into the world of the professionals. Shion believes in your ability. Don't ever give her any reason to change her mind."

It's more than Ayumi could have hoped for, and it's more than he deserves. He's still struggling with himself when Shion tugs at his sleeve and holds up her notepad.

'Let's get stronger together,' is what she's written, and Ayumi feels his throat tighten up dangerously when he swallows his pride at last and bows as low as he can in gratitude.

~~

With no more need to cross dress anymore, Ayumi throws out his women's clothing. He takes one last look at his reflection in the mirror and then takes a pair of scissors to the hair he's been growing for years, but Yasuoka enters the room and stops him before he can begin to cut it.

"No," she mouths, shaking her head and prying the scissors out of his fingers.

"There's no reason in leaving it like this," Ayumi says, but she shakes her head again and scribbles something into her notepad.

'Don't. I like your hair long.'

Ayumi takes another look at his reflection, unhappy with what he sees. Even without the make up and the skirts, he could still easily pass for a member of the opposite sex. He's always taken after his mother in appearance, with his pretty face and his willowy body, and although it's never really bothered him before, he isn't sure he wants to appear for his first official match in the men's training league looking like this.

Yasuoka sets the scissors down and steps behind him, combing her fingers through his hair and separating it into sections. Ayumi watches her in the mirror as she twists them carefully into a tidy braid. She must be pleased with the end result, because she motions for Ayumi to stand up and moves around to his front. She smoothes out the creases in his plain white shirt (not a blouse, Ayumi reminds himself, but an actual man's shirt), then smiles approvingly.

 

'You look very handsome,' she writes, and Ayumi's cheeks grow hot. He's used to being called beautiful, but nobody has ever called him handsome before.

She slips her left hand into Ayumi's right, and that's how they turn up at the Association. She doesn't seem to care that people are staring, determined as she is to stand by him, and she only lets go when it's time for each of them to attend their games.

It's difficult for Ayumi to ignore the snide whispers and the rude jokes from the other players, but he sits in front of his designated board with as much dignity as he can muster.

It doesn't matter what other people think. All he has to do is play his game and the results will speak for themselves.

~~

Ayumi soon manages to settle into a routine of sorts. Promotion takes time, and the games he participates in currently aren't particularly demanding. They're nowhere near as challenging or entertaining as the unofficial games he plays with Yasuoka, but then he's never found anybody else who sparks the same sense of rivalry in him.

When he isn't at the Association, he's working all the hours he can at the soba shop. He visits the Yasuoka residence once a week after he gets paid, and while the amount he gives back after deducting the rent for his own apartment and other living costs seems pathetically small, it still brings him that bit closer to clearing his debts. He helps Yasuoka with her homework, gets a tutoring game from her father, and her mother sneaks leftovers into his bag when she thinks he isn't noticing.

Every morning, he wakes up to find a greeting from Yasuoka on his cell phone, and then again at night before he goes to bed. He teases her about it, and her eyes turn uncertain.

'Am I being a bother?' she writes.

"Not at all," Ayumi assures her, and he really means it. He saves every message she sends him, and it's worth confessing that when her whole face lights up with happiness.

It's hardly enough to repay everything she's done for him, but he buys her a present anyway. A pair of little star-shaped hair clips catches his eye one afternoon as he's on his way to work, so he purchases them for her. He frets over his spur of the moment decision afterwards by thinking they might be too cute or too childish for her tastes, but he forgoes his misgivings and offers them to her almost shyly.

"I don't know if you'll like them or not," he says awkwardly. "I can always exchange them if you'd prefer something different."

It turns out that he needn't have worried, because she tackles him unexpectedly and links her arms around his waist. He supposes she's only trying to say thank you, but that doesn't stop him from blushing when she leans up on her tiptoes and kisses him on the cheek.

~~

Yasuoka stays with him at the hospital on the day of his mother's operation. Ayumi is restless and can't stop himself from pacing the length of the hallway outside the operating theatre, but Yasuoka stops him by tugging him down onto the bench and holding his hand tightly.

'Don't worry,' he knows she's trying to tell him. 'It's going to be all right.'

Ayumi is still anxious, but Yasuoka's soothing influence calms him into sitting still as they wait. Ayumi keeps his eyes fixed on the red light about the theatre doors, willing them to turn green, but the surgery is long and complicated, and he understands that it won't be over as quickly as he'd like it to be.

A light touch to the forehead snaps him out of his thoughts, and he glances to his left, startled. Yasuoka smiles back at him, but she doesn't let go of his hand as she balances her notepad on her thighs.

'You're going to get wrinkles if you frown so much.'

Ayumi couldn't really care less about that, not when the doctors are probably cutting into his mother as they speak, but he knows she's only trying to make him feel better.

"I'm sorry," he says quietly. "You should be at home studying or hanging out with your friends, not stuck in some hospital."

'I'm not going anywhere,' she writes back. 'I want to be here when your mother wakes up.'

She's too kind. Nothing good can ever come of her being with someone like him, but she's as stubborn as she is caring. She wouldn't leave him even if he told her to.

"I really can't beat you," he says, and he would have laughed at her satisfied expression if the situation were any less serious.

It's not as difficult after that, for some reason, although the wait is still a painful one. Yasuoka's presence is both comforting and reassuring, and Ayumi muses that he always seems to be drawing strength from her when he needs it most. It's shameful to admit that he's come to rely on her so much, but what he lacks in emotional strength, she makes up for.

He must surely be a burden on her, he thinks, but he's selfish and he doesn't want to struggle on alone anymore after being isolated for so long.

Yasuoka pulls on his sleeve, then, her eyes reproachful as she shows him the fresh page she's just written on. 'Don't be sad. It makes me sad, too.'

"Are you sure you don't want to go home?" he asks. "You can wait there instead. I promise I'll call you as soon as I hear any news."

But he's forgotten who he's dealing with, and when Yasuoka wraps both her arms around his, she makes it clear she isn't going to budge.

"You win," he relents, and she rests her head against his shoulder in response. They remain like that until the theatre light finally changes colour and one of the surgeons steps outside. They jump to their feet simultaneously, and Ayumi sags in relief when he learns that the operation is a success.

His mother has yet to come round from the anaesthetic as they wheel her out, so he and Yasuoka accompany her as she's taken back to her room to recuperate. They sit by her bedside for the next hour or so, and then she finally opens her eyes. Her mouth curves upward weakly when she sees him, and her smile brightens when her gaze flickers over to Yasuoka who gives her a cheerful wave in response.

It takes Ayumi a moment to notice that he's crying, but then Yasuoka starts wiping his tears away with the handkerchief he gave her nearly a year and a half ago. He can't remember the last time he felt this happy, and if he's happy, then he's sure Yasuoka must be, too.

~~

It's a fortnight before his mother is given permission to return home, and another source of stress is removed when Ayumi succeeds in getting a new apartment on such short notice. It's small and it only has one bedroom, but he has no intention of taking his mother to the place he was living in previously. She needs privacy and security so she can recover, and Ayumi always reminds her to keep the doors and windows locked when he's away. He doubts his father will be able to track them down at their current address, but he doesn't want to take any chances. He's still working at the soba shop, so he doesn't usually arrive home until late. Yasuoka visits his mother while he's out, and he's thankful that she's getting some companionship.

It's getting dark when Ayumi walks in through the front door, but the hallway lights are on and Yasuoka is there to greet him as he slips his shoes off.

'Welcome back,' the writing in her notebook says, and she guides him in the direction of the kitchen where dinner is sitting on the table.

"Shion-san is a wonderful cook," his mother compliments. "She's going to be such a good wife when you both get a little older."

Yasuoka's face turns an interesting shade of red and Ayumi himself grows flustered. "Mom!" he hisses. "Stop saying weird things!"

His mother chuckles, and as humiliated as Ayumi feels right now, he can't bring himself to get upset over being someone else's source of amusement. It's been years since he saw her laugh like this, after all. She's still recovering of course, but she's stronger and livelier than she was in the hospital. The operation really has been a success.

Ayumi knows his mother is regretful when he tells her how he was able to afford the hospital bills. She apologises to Yasuoka for causing so much trouble. She apologises to Yasuoka's parents for having to accept money from them. She apologises to Ayumi for taking away his freedom, but even though he tells her to simply concentrate on getting better, he can sense her guilt and regret when she isn't busy smiling for him.

It turns out Yasuoka's made too much dinner again, but that's because she instructs Ayumi to use the leftovers for his boxed lunch in the morning. She even has a batch of her trademark cookies backed in the shape of shougi pieces stored in the refrigerator for him, and he thanks her for everything she's done as he walks her home.

"My mom isn't so lonely when you're around," he tells her. "I'm glad that you can be with her like this."

'I'm glad, too,' she replies, her penmanship sloppier than usual, but then it probably isn't easy to walk and write at the same time. 'I like your mother. She's always so nice to me.'

"She's nice to everyone," says Ayumi. "That's the sort of person she is. But I get the feeling she has a softer spot for you than most other people."

'You're just as kind as your mother is,' writes Yasuoka. 'I like you just as much as I like her. I like you very much, Ayumi.'

"I like you, too, Yasuoka," Ayumi says sincerely, and she scribbles her response down fervently.

'Not Yasuoka. It's Shion.'

"You're right," says Ayumi, trying out her given name and finding that it doesn't sound half bad coming from his lips. "Shion."

~~

A lot of things happen in the space of the next twelve months. Birthdays are celebrated (Yasuoka's fourteenth, Ayumi's seventeenth), and Ayumi obtains the ranking of first dan. There's a new tournament due that he intends on participating in, and his mother's health improves in leaps and bounds. She's even begun to take over the role of caregiver again, although Ayumi frequently reminds her not to strain herself, and he's even more surprised when she tells him that she's playing shougi, too. Yasuoka has been teaching her the basics in his absence, and while his mother laughs and maintains that she doesn't have any real potential for the game, it's something that brings the two of them closer together.

It's almost too good to be true, this new and peaceful life, and Yasuoka teases him for worrying so much as he wonders when his luck will eventually run out. In the springtime, she'll be in her final year of junior high, and after that, she'll be dedicating herself to shougi full time instead of moving onto high school and completing her education. Ayumi never went to high school either, but the further he progresses with his matches, the harder it gets to fit part time work around his shougi schedule. His employer is lenient and forgiving when he sometimes turns up late, but it's tiring to juggle two things at once.

On the rare occasions he gets an evening away from the soba shop, he invites Yasuoka out someplace nice. Tonight, they go for sushi, and while the game they analyse over their meal is an interesting one, Ayumi can't help yawning every now and again.

'Am I boring you?' asks Yasuoka, her smile mournful, and Ayumi tries to look more alert.

"I’m not bored," he says. "I'm just tired."

'You're working too hard,' she writes. 'You don't get enough sleep.'

"I can cope," Ayumi assures her, but her expression is sceptical.

She's always so considerate of him, and she reads him too well. She knows when he's being truthful and when he's not, just like she knows when he's attempting to protect her from an otherwise harsher reality. It's something Ayumi's mother has picked up on, too. In her more playful moments, she embarrasses him with words like 'dating' and 'courtship', but in her more serious moments, she says she's thankful that he has Yasuoka.

"If anything happens to me..." she says, but Ayumi interrupts her.

"It won't," he says. "Everything is going to be fine."

~~

Four months later, Ayumi's world collapses around him in spectacular style when he gets a phone call at the Association in the middle of his morning match. It has to be urgent, otherwise they wouldn't interrupt him while he's playing, and Ayumi forgets all about finishing his game when he discovers who is calling him and why. His mother is back in the hospital, and she won't wake up. There's a police officer outside her room, and he tells Ayumi that the person who attacked her is none other than his father.

When Ayumi thinks back into the past, he can remember his father being a patient and tolerant man, but that was before he lost his job and turned to alcohol. As difficult as it was to have his mother permanently hospitalised by the time he graduated from grade school, at least it kept her away from his father's violent tendencies.

"I told you," he says hoarsely, his heart twisting painfully inside his chest when he takes in the sight of the blossoming blue and purple marks on her pale face. "I *told* you not to unlock the door for him if he ever finds us."

She doesn't answer; she can't hear him, the doctors say.

Yasuoka visits later that afternoon. The red and yellow flowers she brings with her seem too bright against the white walls, and she holds Ayumi's hand as he tells her what's been happening.

"He beat her up," he says, his voice full of venom and loathing. "He beat her up and stole her money. That bastard. I'd kill him myself if the police didn't already have him in custody."

'Please don't hate him,' she writes. 'Hatred only leads to sadness. You've suffered enough hardship.'

"How can I *not* hate him?" Ayumi exclaims. "Just look at what he did to my mom!"

'I don't hate him,' she replies. 'I'm sure your mother doesn't, either.'

"Well I do," Ayumi says darkly. "I'll never forgive him."

'You don't have to,' she writes. 'Not now, but maybe someday. What he did was wrong, but don't let yourself be consumed by hatred because of that.'

"You could never understand!" he shouts. "You don't know anything about true hardship! How could you when you've only ever led a sheltered life?"

She lets go of his hand and slaps him so quickly that he's left reeling. All he can do is touch his reddened cheek and stare at her in shock as her shoulders tremble with barely suppressed emotion. When she gets herself under control, she picks up her notepad and scribbles furiously into it.

'Papa and Mama were murdered right in front of me,' she writes, her expression uncharacteristically fierce. 'I still see them in my dreams at night. I see their fear, their pain and their blood. You dare to call *me* sheltered after witnessing something like that?'

That's right, Ayumi thinks. Her birth parents were killed before her eyes when she was just a child. Compared to that, his troubles seem silly and insignificant.

"I'm sorry," he tells her, his anger draining away and leaving him feeling ashamed. "That was inappropriate."

'It's okay,' she writes, and the smile she gives him is gentle and understanding. 'I forgive you. I even forgive whoever killed Papa and Mama.'

"How can you be so kind?" asks Ayumi.

'Because I don't want to live in a world that's full of hate,' she answers, then takes him into her arms and holds him tight.

~~

Ayumi buries his mother three weeks later, but by then he's lost his will to play. After all, she was the reason he took up shougi in the first place. Without her, there doesn't seem to be any meaning in going on.

He shuts himself inside his apartment. He doesn't answer the door or his phone. His board lays untouched, gathering dust. He doesn't eat. He barely even sleeps. Yasuoka allows him another two days to grieve before letting herself in with the spare key. She draws the curtains to let some light into the room, cleans the mess he's made, and forces him to eat the dinner she cooks.

'The Association was willing to give you a leave of absence, but that's no excuse to skip your matches. You will attend them, won't you?'

"No," Ayumi says dully. "What's the point?"

'You promised!' she writes. 'Weren't we going to get stronger together? What about the money you still owe my father?'

"I'll pay it back. Just not with shougi."

He thinks Yasuoka might hit him again like she did at the hospital, but instead she takes out the dusty board and wipes it clean with her handkerchief. Her eyes are burning with intensity, and while Ayumi would usually accept her challenge with relish, today he wants nothing more than to cower away from it.

Yasuoka isn't going to let him off that easily, though, and she refuses to look away from him until he takes his place across from her. He’s hesitant and tentative, but her hands are steady as they begin their game, forgoing her usual defensive style for a more aggressive approach.

Twenty minutes in, and Ayumi is sweating. Yasuoka has been dominating from the start, and although he knows he still has a chance of making a comeback, he's too intimidated to try and pull it off.

'I can't win,' he convinces himself. 'She's going to crush me. When did she get this strong?'

The squeaking of Yasuoka's pen moving over a blank page in her notepad distracts him from his scrutiny of the board, and it's almost as if she's reading his mind when she writes, 'I'm not strong. You're just being weak.'

"Weak?" says Ayumi, as the last of his self-confidence slips through his grasp. "I'm weak?"

'This isn't you,' Yasuoka tells him. 'Saito Ayumi's shougi is not something as feeble as this!'

"I'm not...." Ayumi stammers. "This isn't..."

'Maybe we should start over,' she writes, her expression disdainful. 'I could play a nice tutoring game with you if you want.'

"A tutoring game?" Ayumi bristles at the taunt. "Don't get ahead of yourself."

He's learned better than to be provoked by insults and mind games, but he can't accept being looked down on by the person he's always considered to be his most powerful rival. He finds what he's been lacking ever since he made his first move, and that's the desire to actually play, to *win*. He wants to prove himself to Yasuoka by showing her that he's more than capable of being a worthy opponent.

In the end, he loses, but it's a close game. He successfully turned it around, but his poor opening play let him down. This doesn’t disappoint Yasuoka, though.

'You remembered,' she writes, beaming at him. 'You didn't forget how to play your own shougi.'

"All because of you," he says, and he relaxes enough to make fun of her a little. "Honestly. You didn't have to bully me around like that just to make me play properly."

'Yes I did,' she pouts. 'You wouldn't have regained your fighting spirit otherwise.'

"Don't expect such an easy win next time," Ayumi warns, and Yasuoka grins before doing something completely unexpected by leaning over the board and pecking him on the lips.

'If you win next time, I'll let you kiss me,' she writes, giggling silently as he gapes at her. She clears the board and goes to make tea while Ayumi stays seated, touching his lips in wonder. They're still tingling.

~~

Gradually, with Yasuoka's help, Ayumi gets back on his feet. It isn't easy moving on after his mother's death, but Yasuoka, as ever, is there to stand by him. She sends him a message on his cell phone inviting him along with her family on a weekend trip to the hot springs the day after she graduates from junior high, and although he tactfully tries to refuse, the arrangements have already been made.

The journey is an uneasy one, mostly because he's doing his best to be polite and unobtrusive, but also because he isn't sure how to act around Yasuoka's parents. They're not unpleasant, far from it. Yasuoka's father is friendly and boisterous with him, especially after he's had his first beer, but Ayumi is too nervous to laugh at his jokes. Yasuoka's mother inquires about his health, his recent matches, and the movie he went to see with Yasuoka the week before. Ayumi nods mechanically, and Yasuoka pouts unhappily.

'You're making him uncomfortable,' she writes, but her mother simply chuckles.

"Ayumi-kun is such a shy boy. It's fun to watch how often he blushes."

As if on cue, Ayumi's cheeks turn pink for the umpteenth time since they've boarded the train.

It's mid-afternoon when they reach their destination. They eat an early dinner at the inn and then Ayumi and Yasuoka are shooed outside for a walk around the gardens. They watch the sunset together and stroll around a little more until Yasuoka's mother calls to bring them back half an hour later. The open-air baths are partitioned so Yasuoka and her mother go to the women's section her father and Ayumi go to the men's.

It's difficult even for Ayumi to stay tense when the water feels so good, and he very nearly succeeds in unwinding altogether when Yasuoka's father opens his mouth.

"Do you like Shion?" he asks, and Ayumi flounders for an appropriate response.

"She's a very good friend," he stutters. "I'm grateful for everything she's done for me."

"That's it?" Yasuoka's father prompts.

"She's a very good friend," Ayumi repeats helplessly, and Yasuoka's father sighs.

"You're a good kid, not to mention a hard worker. You won't let Shion down, will you?"

"Of course not," says Ayumi, although he's not sure what, exactly, he's making a promise to. "I'm aware of the money I still owe you, and I promise I'll pay you back as soon as I can. Until then, please be patient with me."

"Don't be so formal," says Yasuoka's father laughingly. "We're in a hot spring, after all."

"Yes, sir," Ayumi says obediently, and Yasuoka's father laughs again.

"I hope you're not this reserved when you're with Shion. She thinks very highly of you. You're the one she's always talking about. She won't hear a bad word against you. She's a strong girl, but even she has a fragile side. Stand by her the way she's always stood by you. Understand?"

Ayumi nods. "Yes, sir."

He fully intends on doing so anyway. He doesn't need to be told that by anyone.

~~

It happens right after he leaves the Association after his morning match. He isn't given the opportunity to retaliate when someone grabs him from behind, covering his mouth. He hears the sharp crackle of a taser as it hits his back, feels the jolt that rips through his body before he's stunned into unconsciousness.

When he comes to, his wrists are bound by handcuffs above his head, and his ankles are tied with rope. There's a chair in the far corner of the room and a small window at the other end, but it's boarded shut. Ayumi forces himself to stay calm and analyse the situation rationally rather than panicking, and he gives his surroundings as thorough an investigation as he can manage.

The building seems like it's fallen into abandon, and he wracks his brains as he tries to recall if there have been any recent closures in the area. He has no idea how big the building is, but there's a possibility he could be trapped inside a disused hospital or police station. He doesn't think he's in anybody's house at least, but it doesn't bring him any closer to figuring out his current location. He listens carefully, but hears no sound of traffic, or of any other people.

Escape is impossible. His bag has been taken from him, and probably his cell phone, too. Whoever attacked him has planned this out well, but why anyone would want to do such a thing, Ayumi doesn't understand. He can't recall doing anything that would give someone a grudge, and he's advanced or established enough in the shougi world to warrant a kidnapping like this.

In any case, all he can do is wait. It's something he hasn't done since his mother's surgery, but thinking about that brings a bitter taste to his mouth. Yasuoka was with him back then, and Ayumi wonders what she's doing right now. She must be worried. He always contacts her to let her know when he's finished his games.

Finally, the door opens. A tall man enters, his footsteps echoing. Enough light threads through behind him for Ayumi to see that he's wearing a long brown coat. A hat is pulled down to obscure most of his face, leaving only his mouth and his chin visible.

"Who are you?" asks Ayumi. "Where am I?"

"You don't need to know," the man answers, his words low and rough, and it's not a voice Ayumi recalls hearing before.

"All right, then," he says. "What do you want? Are you trying to kill me?"

"I'd like to," is the reply. "I wish I could, but you're too valuable for that."

"Why are you doing this?" says Ayumi, forcing himself to suppress his fear and sound collected. "What reason do you have for keeping me here?"

He winces when a flashlight clicks on suddenly, but follows what it's pointing out when his eyes have adjusted. His breath catches and his blood feels like ice in his veins when he sees what the flashlight is illuminating. There's a billboard on the opposite wall, and it's completely covered in photographs of him and Yasuoka together. His face has been cut out in every one of them, but that isn't what frightens him most.

"Stay away from her," he warns shakily. "If you don't, I swear I'll-"

"You'll what?" the man asks in amusement. "I killed her parents, you know. I could just as easily kill her lover."

"But you won't," says Ayumi. "You said so yourself."

"So I did," the man agrees. "That's because you're my precious bait. Once she knows where you are, she'll come running to your rescue like a true prince." He takes a cell phone out of his pocket - Ayumi's cell phone - and dials. "Hello? Yasuoka Shion-san, I presume?"

Ayumi growls, but his kidnapper pays him no attention while he holds a brief, but one-sided conversation with Yasuoka.

"Here. Let her know that you're alive."

The cell phone is held against his ear and Ayumi speaks into the mouthpiece immediately. "Shion? Shion, don't come! Call the police, but don't leave the house! Shi-"

The phone is snatched away before he can say anymore, and he glares up at the mysterious figure as he gives Yasuoka an address and a time to meet. The cell phone is snapped shut, and Ayumi snarls viciously.

"Don't get your hopes up," he says. "She won't come."

"She will, and that's when I'll make the trade. It'll be your freedom in exchange for hers."

"Over my dead body."

A shadowed smirk is the only response Ayumi gets.

~~

Ayumi is still bound by his wrists when he's guided outside, but his ankles are untied so he can walk on his own. The knife against his throat is a constant reminder for him not to try anything stupid, and he takes small steps ahead of his captor. They reach the exit, and Ayumi is temporarily blinded against the red and blue strobe lights of the surrounding police cars. Their sirens remain silent, however, and Ayumi scans the people in front of him for any sign of Yasuoka. He sighs in relief when all he finds are officers, then tenses when the man behind him tightens his grip and makes sure his weapon is clearly visible to the police.

Ayumi isn't worried about his own safety, not when he finally has a chance to make an escape, but his heart nearly stops beating in his chest when a familiar brunette peeks out from the nearest patrol car.

"Idiot!" he shouts. "I told you not to come!"

He wonders in despair why the women in his life never listen to anything he tells them, but Yasuoka simply smiles and holds up her notepad.

'Don't worry,' is what she's written. 'I'm here to save you.'

"Are you insane?" Ayumi yells back. "Stay away!"

She ignores him, and Ayumi feels like killing the fools who brought her with them. They'd better have a plan, he thinks, because if anything happens to her...

'I've come to make the exchange,' Yasuoka writes, staring straight at the man who's keeping Ayumi hostage. 'If you release Ayumi, I will do whatever you want.'

He instructs her to come closer, pressing the blade tighter against Ayumi's throat when he starts to struggle and drawing a thin line of blood. It doesn't hurt that much, but Yasuoka pauses and bites her lower lip. She's never been good with blood, Ayumi remembers. She gets frightened just by seeing it sometimes.

'Stay where you are,' wills Ayumi wills. 'Don't do as he says.'

Yasuoka hangs back another minute longer, but then she shakes her head firmly and presses onward. They're less than half a foot apart when Ayumi makes his move. The culprit releases his hold just enough when he's about to grab Yasuoka and Ayumi tackles him with all his strength. His hands are still trapped behind his back, but he hooks a leg between the kidnapper's and knocks him to the ground, inadvertently falling with him. He feels a sharp pain in his side but pays no attention to it as the two of them continue to tussle. A knee catches him in the stomach and he's thrown onto his back, but then a shot rings out and the sound of another body hitting the ground next to his.

There's nothing but noise after that as the police close in, and Ayumi stares blankly up at the night sky. The stars are bright, and there's a strange warmth where he felt pain earlier, and then there are gentle hands guiding his head into someone's lap. Teardrops patter onto his cheek, so he turns his eyes to look at who they're coming from. They turn out to be Yasuoka's tears, and he tries to tell her not to cry. She doesn't listen to him, she only sobs louder, but there's something else that's forcing its way out of her mouth along with her hitching breaths. Her lips keep moving in the same three syllables over and over, and Ayumi has to strain his ears to catch whatever she's trying to say, but then he realises it's his name and that she's actually speaking for the first time in years.

"It's okay," he says, "don't cry," but two other pairs of hands take him away and lift him up onto a stretcher.

Ayumi doesn't recall closing his eyes, but everything is different when he opens them again. He sees white walls and white sheets and he wonders darkly if he's going to be plagued with hospital bills for the rest of his life, but then a figure leans over him and slides its arms around his neck.

"Stupid Ayumi," says Yasuoka, her voice shaking almost as much as her body. "You could have gotten yourself killed!"

"You're talking," Ayumi says in awe, and she nods, her hair tickling his cheek at the movement.

"I probably wouldn't have found my voice again if a certain someone hadn't been so reckless. Are you trying to worry me into an early grave?"

"I'm sorry," Ayumi replies, but she just hugs him harder.

"I'm so glad you're all right," she says.

Yasuoka's mother and father are the first to visit, but they're soon followed by the police. The kidnapper really was the same person who murdered Yasuoka's birth parents. His fingerprints match the ones he left at the scene of the crime with the bloodied Ousho piece, and Ayumi can't bring himself to feel sorry when he hears that he's dead. Yasuoka will be better off without that creep in her life. She can start over and put the past behind her.

Ayumi's stab wound is deep enough for the doctors to keep him in bed longer than he'd like, so Yasuoka brings in a laptop for him to play shougi over the internet. She hardly leaves his side and scolds him when he moves about too much.

"The doctors and I will be very angry if you pull out your stitches by accident," she says sternly, and Ayumi reluctantly does as he's told.

He heals eventually, but the scar that runs from his hip to his ribcage will never disappear. He doesn't complain. He knows how lucky he is to be alive.

The papers are still running their story, but Ayumi doesn't bother reading them. He and Yasuoka both refuse to comment when he's discharged from the hospital and allowed to go home. She stays with him through the night, and he hears her laugh for the first time when she opens up the bag her mother gave her to pull out two pairs of matching pyjamas, pink for him, blue for her.

"Aren't these the wrong way around?" asks Ayumi, slightly disgruntled, and Yasuoka giggles.

"The bigger pair is definitely yours," she tells him. "You've always looked pretty in pink."

~~

Time passes by, and life gradually changes. Yasuoka wins her first title before Ayumi does, and although there are only around fifty professional female shougi players compared to the larger and more competitive men's league, it's still a big achievement.

She's the one who proposes to him when she turns eighteen, and even if Ayumi weren't already in love with her he would willingly spend the rest of his life making her as happy as she makes him. They've always been an unconventional and vaguely peculiar pair, and Ayumi feels a certain sense of bemusement whenever he looks back at the wedding photographs of himself, the tall, effeminate groom, and Yasuoka, the petite, boyish bride.

Ayumi is still paying off the money he owes to Yasuoka's father, but the amount is much less than it was five years ago. He's a man of his word, though, and he insists on paying back the total in full despite Yasuoka's father nudging him slyly in the ribs every time he brings the matter up and saying he'll waive the rest if he and Yasuoka start giving him grandchildren.

One thing that hasn't changed is the games they play together. She faces him across the board every day with that same challenging smile as the ring on her left hand sparkles in the light. It's everything Ayumi has ever wished for, and more. What began as the dramatic tragedy of his life has now turned into a fairytale ending.

 

End.


End file.
